1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a scuff plate and more particularly to a scuff plate which displays a specific shape by light from a light source.
2. Related Art
In recent years, a scuff plate is mounted on an edge portion of a door opening in a vehicle to protect a side sill portion. In addition, the scuff plate is used to obtain a decorative effect by allowing light to be emitted therefrom in a designed pattern such as characters.
A light emitting scuff plate is disclosed in, for example, JP-A-2001-163117. In JP-A-2001-163117, a scuff plate is described which has a light source, a light guiding plate, a light reflecting layer disposed on a rear surface of the light guiding plate and a cover having a light transmitting opening which is formed into a desired shape.
With the conventional scuff plate which is configured as described above, however, there has been a problem that the thickness thereof is increased. Due to the position where it is mounted, the scuff plate is required not to restrict the motion of the legs of a passenger when he or she gets in or out of a vehicle. In addition, when the scuff plate is mounted on the side sill portion, a wiring harness is disposed on a rear surface side (in an interior of the side sill portion) of the scuff plate. Namely, the scuff plate has needed to reduce its thickness to a predetermined thickness or thinner.
In the conventional scuff plate, light from the light source such as an LED which is disposed to a side of the light guiding plate is reflected to a front surface of the scuff plate (upwards) by the light reflecting layer which is disposed on a rear surface (a lower side) of the light guiding plate so that the light so reflected is allowed to transmit through the light transmitting opening in the cover. Namely, in the conventional scuff plate, in order to secure the quantity of light which transmits through the light transmitting opening, the light guiding plate has been required to have a thickness which is equal to or thicker than that of the light source. Namely, since the light guiding plate is required to have a thickness which is equal to or thicker than a certain thickness and most of the thickness of the scuff plate is occupied by the light guiding plate, the thickness of the scuff plate itself has also been increased.
Furthermore, in the conventional scuff plate, the light guiding plate is formed into a flat plate-like shape, and irregularities are not formed on the light guiding plate itself. Since no irregularities cannot be formed on the light guiding plate, the shape displayed by the scuff plate tends to lack a three-dimensional effect. With the lack of such a three-dimensional effect, the appearance of the scuff plate has been deteriorated not only at night when light is emitted but also in a day when no light is emitted therefrom.
In addition, in the conventional scuff plate, with the light source unit disposed at a longitudinal end portion of the light guiding plate, there has also been caused a problem that when a distance from the light source to the light transmitting opening is increased, the quantity of light that is transmitted through the light transmitting opening is reduced. In short, there is caused an unevenness in luminance, leading to a large reduction in the appearance of the scuff plate.